Want to reach us?Please scroll down on this pagefor contact information. You can also find a brief history of our congregation here.

Our new Worship Leaderis Aidan McCormack. McCormack is a former Unitarian Universalist Minister with, he says, the gift of the blarney and a decade of experience as a youth minister and hospital chaplain. He is also founder and curator of Saint Sparklebear, a freelance ministry practice geared toward Millennials, the LGBTQ community, and the “spiritual, but not religious.” In his writing and work he seeks to bring the truth of the Body of Christ to all bodies and reconcile science to faith and vice versa. He’s thrilled to preach at Archwood UCC.

How to reach us

at Archwood United Church of Christ

Here is whom to contact for various needs and questions:

Building use. Donna Fair coordinates our building calendar and relationships with our space sharers. We continue to welcome neighbors and community partners to make arrangements to use our historic building. Please email her at boxerakclover@sbcglobal.net, or leave a message at the church office, 216-351-1060 and ask Donna to contact you.

Worship. Want to read scripture, lead prayer, serve as a greeter, offer special music? Speak with Worship Committee convener Edie Rasel or send an email to the church office, archwoodoffice@gmail.com.

Governance. Moderator Judy Schumann and the Governing Body keep our organizational life going and make sure there are “point people” for functions such as those described above. Questions? Contact Judy at judyschumann1121@gmail.com.

Church office. Feel free to leave a voice mail message at Archwood’s phone number, 216-351-1060, or send an email to archwoodoffice@gmail.com. All will be checked regularly.

A Brief History

of Archwood United Church of Christ

Founded in 1819, Archwood is the oldest congregation of the United Church of Christ in the city of Cleveland. We are also the result of a merger of Archwood Congregational Church and Fourth Evangelical and Reformed Church in 1967, which followed the national merger of those two denominations in 1957. In the 1950s the membership of Archwood Church was over 1,000 people, most of whom lived in our Brooklyn Centre neighborhood on Cleveland's Near West Side. When the freeways were built in the 1960s, as many as 5,000 homes and businesses in our immediate area were torn down, causing an outward migration. Busing in the 1970s also caused some families to move to nearby suburbs. These changes contributed to the decline of the church, to such an extent that in the early 1990s there were only 30 people in worship on an average Sunday, most of whom were over 75 years of age. This struggling congregation found it difficult to find a pastor, and for three years, while actively searching, was served by an interim pastor. The regional UCC executive that assists congregations to find pastors suggested that they look at the candidacy of openly gay pastors, many of whom have difficulty finding placement, even though the UCC was the first denomination in the United States to ordain an openly gay man in 1972. (The UCC, through one of its predecessor bodies, the Congregational Church, was also the first in the U.S. to ordain a person of African descent, in the late 1700s, and the first to ordain a woman, in 1853.) In 1992 the search committee came to a conclusion about the best qualified candidate and extended an invitation to David Bahr to preach a "call sermon," after which the congregation would vote. A two-thirds majority was required to extend a call, and the margin was exactly two-thirds. Most, but not all, of those persons who voted against his call left the church immediately. Cleveland's daily newspaper, The Plain Dealer, carried the news that the church had called an openly gay man as its pastor. Visitors, gay and non-gay, started coming to the church and becoming members. The long-time members who remained were exceptionally loving and welcoming. An Open and Affirming Covenant was developed to make explicit the church's welcome of all people and which expressed its commitment to be intentional in growing as a multicultural, multiracial congregation. A few years later our diversity further developed as we began providing interpretation for deaf and hearing impaired individuals. In 2001 we began to consider an explicit statement of our commitment to justice and peace. From that we developed a Just Peace Covenant, similar to those of other UCC congregations.The Rev. David Bahr concluded his ministry at Archwood in the fall of 2007 upon receving a call from a UCC congregation in Denver, Colo.There followed a period of search and call during which the church was served successively by three interim ministers: the Rev. Joan Salmon-Campbell, the Rev. Stephen Adams and the Rev. Ruth Garwood.The Rev. Sara Ross (now known as the Rev. Sara Rossigg) was called as Archwood's pastor in December 2010 and served from Jan. 1, 2011, to June 30, 2015, when she relocated to Connecticut to be reunited with her family and pursue other callings in ministry.